The Adventurist

May 2, 2016
Hipps's debut novel peels back the layers of one man's seemingly monotonous life to reveal the deeply felt desire beneath, and the consequences of embracing one's innate thirst for adventure. Henry Hurt is a software engineer at a corporation in an unnamed city in the American South. His mother died a year ago, he's nursing an attraction to a married co-worker, and the company for which he works is struggling to turn a profit. To break through his overwhelming angstâor "the pall," as he calls itâHurt decides to take his life circumstances in his own hands, more doggedly pursuing both purpose and fulfillment in his work and love. But in so doing, he endangers his career and relationships, forcing him to question what can truly bring him contentment and meaning. Hurt is a fascinating, if at times frustrating, protagonist; his is a middling existence that obscures an existential dread. He's self-aware and observant, the perfect narrator for a story that feels like the slow-motion collapse of a man who's already on the edge when the reader meets him. But rather than leaving him to wallow, the novel ends on a sense of hope predicated on the potential in a clean break and a fresh start. Deeply human, at times funny, and laced throughout with reflection on the crushing weight of the familiar, this novel is an engaging and nuanced exploration of life.

Starred review from February 1, 2016
A brilliant, introspective, socially awkward software engineer navigates corporate and personal challenges. Hipps' classy debut novel bears an epigraph from The Moviegoer--"Businessmen are our only metaphysicians"--and earns comparison to Walker Percy's classic in its exploration of their shared premise. Here the businessman is Henry Hurt, head of the tech department at a firm called Cyber Systems, located in an office tower in an unnamed Southern city. Though he loves his job and is exceedingly good at it, Henry doesn't actually give a damn about Internet security software: "What moves me to work is money's comforts, yes, and also a community of smart, mostly efficient people; the sense of place that a good office gives." This sense of place has become all the more essential since the death less than a year ago of Henry's mother, back in Minnesota where he was raised and where he ends up several times on business trips in the course of the story. There, he visits his failing father and younger sister, Gretchen, the closest person in his life. Rocked by his loss at a nearly preconscious level, Henry pours his psychic energies into the "adventures" of the title, one being the need to help save his company from a massive shortfall in sales; the other, a similarly massive crush on a married co-worker. The writing is just about perfect: incisive, eloquent, philosophical, and witty by turns, whether describing a NASCAR race, a hotel lobby, a corporate meeting, the comportment of the slick, devious, hard-drinking sales manager Henry works with, or--most profoundly--what it is like to lose one's mother. "What were you doing in her closet?" Gretchen asks. "You know perfectly well," Henry replies. "Yes," she says. He explains to the reader: "I wanted to have a look at her bedroom slippers. The terry cloth inside is worn to a dark shine. They seemed among the most unlikely things in the world." Like Richard Ford, Hipps finds illumination about the meaning of life everywhere he looks. The arrival of a top-notch talent.

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April 1, 2016
A good company man, one of Henry Hurt's colleagues calls him. At just 34, Henry is head of engineering at Cybersystems, an Internet security company. He likes his job; his boss, Keith; and especially Jane, the head of marketing. In fact, work is the focus of Henry's life, providing certainty and helping to stave off dread. But business hasn't been good, and the team at Cyber finds itself having to scramble to meet financial targets for the quarter. Henry, Keith, Jane, and Ian, the new sales guy, embark on a grueling quest to Miami, Houston, and Kansas City to land new contracts. This happens over the same weekend that Gretchen, Henry's sister, has planned an event back in Minnesota to mark the first anniversary of their mother's death. Gretchen serves as Henry's inner voice, gently chiding him for being so wrapped up in the corporate world instead of reaching for something grander. Sharp observations, a tone that is both rueful and wryly humorous, and a keen sense of the American regional landscape will appeal to readers who enjoy character-driven fiction.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)